Rushing to X keeps getting worse
Musk fired hate content reviewers en masse
January 11, 2024, 7:22 a.m
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Users have been complaining for a long time about rampant hatred of Elon Musk’s short message platform Thousands of blocked users were also reactivated.
Under its owner Elon Musk, the short message service X has laid off more than a thousand employees worldwide who were responsible for moderating content and combating the spread of hate speech. This was stated by the Australian Online Safety Authority, citing figures from the online platform formerly known as Twitter.
Accordingly, 1,213 employees in the “Trust and Security” area have left the online company since it was bought by high-tech billionaire Musk in October 2022. These included 80 percent of the software engineers in this area. At the same time, thousands of previously blocked user accounts were reactivated. The authority explained that all the conditions for the spread of harmful content had been created.
Agency director Julie Inman Grant said this was the first time such specific figures about job cuts at X had been published. Your authority had requested the numbers from the short message service on the basis of a law on online security.
Musk also shared questionable content
Musk took over Twitter in October 2022 for $44 billion (around 40 billion euros today). As part of a chaotic restructuring of the platform, Musk laid off Twitter’s top management and thousands of employees.
In addition, the head of the electric car manufacturer Tesla drastically reduced the moderation of content and allowed users blocked for rule violations – the most famous of whom is former US President Donald Trump – back onto the platform.
Observers denounce a significant increase in hate messages and misinformation on X. Musk himself has caused outrage by spreading conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic content. Advertising partners such as IBM, Apple and Coca-Cola withdrew due to the many hateful posts on X, which greatly angered Musk. “Go Fuck Yourself,” he complained on stage at a New York Times conference.